{"id":197378,"date":"2026-04-14T21:34:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197378\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T21:34:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:34:38","slug":"harvey-weinstein-is-going-on-trial-again-in-a-new-york-rape-case-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197378\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvey Weinstein is going on trial again in a New York rape case"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 After years of\u00a0#MeToo infamy<\/a>, legal peril and prison, Harvey Weinstein is again going on trial on a rape charge in New York City.<\/p>\n

Jury selection started Tuesday in the onetime movie mogul\u2019s latest retrial, where jurors will weigh \u2014 for the third time \u2014 whether he raped hairstylist and actor\u00a0Jessica Mann<\/a>\u00a0in a Manhattan hotel in 2013.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a more streamlined proceeding than the array of allegations that were aired at Weinstein\u2019s previous trials in New York and Los Angeles. The Oscar-winning producer denies all the accusations and\u00a0declared in court<\/a>\u00a0this winter that he had \u201cacted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the retrial is expected to last up to six weeks. Questioned about the length of the proceeding and whether they could be fair and impartial about the much-publicized case, more than 80 prospective jurors asked to be excused during initial screening Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

About 60 others remained for further questioning in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"HarveyHarvey Weinstein appears in court for a pre-trial hearing, Thursday, March 19, 2026, in New York.(Jefferson Siegel | Jefferson Siegel\/The New York Times via AP, Pool)A surprise move from prosecutors<\/p>\n

While Mann\u2019s accusation may be familiar, specifics of the case may differ. In a surprise move before jury selection began Tuesday, prosecutors suggested they might seek to introduce a new piece of evidence \u2014 a remark that Weinstein allegedly made to a court officer six years ago.<\/p>\n

According to Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Candace White, the officer told prosecutors last week that he was on hand for Weinstein\u2019s\u00a0February 2020 sexual assault conviction<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 which was later overturned \u2014 and heard Weinstein say: \u201cIf you had seen these girls, you would have done the exact same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weinstein\u2019s lawyers urged Judge Curtis Farber to keep any mention of the supposed remark out of his upcoming retrial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sounds far-fetched,\u201d defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said, adding that \u201cit\u2019s just too late\u201d to introduce it.<\/p>\n

A subject that was explored in prior trials \u2014 a claims fund for women who said Weinstein sexually mistreated them \u2014 likely won\u2019t come up again. The defense team doesn\u2019t intend to raise the subject, Farber said.<\/p>\n

A new defense team<\/p>\n

Agnifilo and his partners\u00a0took on the case<\/a>\u00a0in February, when longtime Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala stepped aside from the retrial to focus on the former studio boss\u2019 appeals and civil matters. Both Aidala and Agnifilo are well-known New York defense attorneys, but their litigation styles differ. Aidala is folksy, while Agnifilo is more buttoned-up.<\/p>\n

Weinstein wielded significant clout in the entertainment industry, having built his reputation on such critical and popular hits as \u201cShakespeare in Love,\u201d \u201cPulp Fiction\u201d and \u201cChocolat.\u201d He also became a\u00a0prominent Democratic donor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then a series of sexual harassment and sex assault allegations against Weinstein began to emerge in news media in 2017, propelling the #MeToo movement.<\/p>\n

He was criminally charged in New York in 2018 and in Los Angeles two years later.<\/p>\n

A tangled series of trials<\/p>\n

Weinstein went to trial and was convicted of some \u2014 but not all \u2014 counts in both cases. His initial New York convictions\u00a0were overturned,<\/a>\u00a0spurring a retrial last year.<\/p>\n

The retrial verdict was mixed: Weinstein was\u00a0convicted of forcing<\/a>\u00a0oral sex on production assistant and producer\u00a0Miriam Haley<\/a>\u00a0in 2006, but he was acquitted of forcibly performing oral sex on model-turned-psychotherapist\u00a0Kaja Sokola<\/a>. The jury didn\u2019t decide on the rape charge involving Mann because the\u00a0foreperson refused to keep deliberating<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mann has testified that she had a consensual, on-and-off relationship with the then-married Weinstein. But when he cornered her in a Manhattan hotel room where she was staying on a weekend getaway, she protested, \u201cI don\u2019t want to do this,\u201d she told jurors. She said he kept making advances and demands until she \u201cjust gave up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weinstein hasn\u2019t testified at any of his trials, but his lawyers have contended that he never had non-consensual sex. The defense claimed that his accusers willingly entertained his sexual overtures because they wanted his help in show business.<\/p>\n

The women said Weinstein dangled his Hollywood influence to draw them into his orbit and then victimize them.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s appealing\u00a0the Los Angeles verdict<\/a>\u00a0and is expected to appeal the New York conviction involving Haley. It carries\u00a0the potential for up to 25 years<\/a>\u00a0in prison; no sentencing date has been set.<\/p>\n

In this case, the rape charge is a lower-level felony punishable by up to four years behind bars. Weinstein, 73, already has served longer than that.<\/p>\n

Weinstein has various health problems and uses a wheelchair. He\u00a0told the judge<\/a>\u00a0in January that his \u201cmental state is collapsing\u201d in New York\u2019s notorious\u00a0Rikers Island jail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press generally does not identify people without their permission if they say they have been sexually assaulted. Haley, Mann and Sokola agreed to be named.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 After years of\u00a0#MeToo infamy, legal peril and prison, Harvey Weinstein is again going on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[72866,6431,78293,9,24,55,54,56,78675],"class_list":["post-197378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-metoo","tag-harvey-weinstein","tag-jessica-mann","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-rape-case"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}